 | Daily Bible Reflections
for March 16, 2011 |
|  Dear Lordie,
God will never leave you. This Wednesday is no different.
Praying for you,
Bo Sanchez
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| | what’s your nineveh? So Jonah obeyed the Lord and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to walk through it. – Jonah 3:3 Tarcs was my boss in my previous work. He was trusted with the top executive positions in the last three companies he worked for. He has always been successful in his chosen field. One day, he asked me if I could vouch or be a reference for him. I gladly gave in to his request. I assumed that he was considering a new job with another big multinational I.T. company. Then I got an email a few days after we talked. It was from an organization for volunteers in remote countries. The volunteer work included issues on gender equality, poverty-alleviation and victims of HIV and AIDS. He wanted to go into fulltime volunteer work! It would be a complete shift for him — transferring from a fast-paced, high-pressure and high-paying job to serving other people he barely knew. I was initially shocked but later impressed with his plan. I gladly replied to the questions in the email. He left for Zambia in October 2009. Based on his recent Internet posts, he looks happy and the Zambians are happy that he is there. Alvin Fabella (alvinfabella@yahoo.com) REFLECTION: Nineveh was a big city but Jonah believed he had a bigger God. What is your “Nineveh”? Are you ready to obey God and overcome your fears about your own “Nineveh”? Jesus, give me the courage to go wherever You lead me. | |
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| | COMPANION | 1st READING This time Jonah does as God asks and goes to Nineveh to preach repentance to the people there. They respond to his preaching (thank God) and repent of their evil ways and God relents and does not destroy the city. Why, then does Jonah get upset? Jonah is worried about himself and his own reputation. This is one of the first struggles we have to overcome if we want victory over sin in our lives — putting our own needs before those of others. Jonah 3:1-10 1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” 3 So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’s bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” 5 when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. 7 Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles: “Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. 8 Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand. 9 Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish.” 10 When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out. P S A L M Psalms 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19 R: A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn. 1 [3] Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. 2 [4] Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. (R) 10 [12] A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. 11 [13] Cast me not out from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me. (R) 16 [18] For you are not pleased with sacrifices; should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it. 17 [19] My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn. (R) G O S P E L Every generation has a certain level of wickedness to it and there is no point complaining about our situation whatever it may be. This is the time in which we live and we need to make the most of it and thus do whatever we can to proclaim and live the Gospel. Jesus is obviously frustrated by the slowness of people in accepting the Gospel of salvation. Their hardness of heart is probably much worse today. However, let us rejoice that we have the answer in Jesus and do all we can to share this saving truth with others. VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart for I am gracious and merciful. Luke 11:29-32 29 While still more people gathered in the crowd, he said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. 30 Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. 32 At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.” my reflections t h i n k : Let us rejoice that we have the answer in Jesus and do all we can to share this saving truth with others. God’s special verse/thought for me today________________ _________________________________________________________
T O D A Y ’ S BLESSING LIST Thank You Lord for: ____________________________________ _______________________________________________________ READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR 1 Samuel 9-12 | |
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| | SABBATH | RECOGNIZING THE PRESENCE OF GOD It is not always easy to recognize where and how God is working in our lives. Much of our capacity to do this easily and quickly is honed over years of practice and submission to the grace of the Holy Spirit. I find it fascinating that Jesus would chastise the Jews for their lack of recognition of the hand of God at work and then tell them, to rub salt further into the wound, that Gentiles do a better job of seeing Him at work. But from experience, how often do we see something similar in our lives? How often has it taken a stranger to jolt us back into reality about something that is happening in our lives or the life of our community? Sometimes an outsider can see more clearly than the ones we would expect to have the better perception. Why is this so? It might be because the outsider can more easily see the contrasts between their life and the one they are looking at whereas we, caught up in the middle of everything, are too easily distracted from the right focus. Perhaps we should just be grateful to the stranger when he sets us straight about what is really happening in our lives. When it comes to our faith, we should be a little more concerned because faith is something we should all seek to strengthen in our lives. This means that we should seek not to be distracted by external realities. That is, there is less of an excuse for this sort of thing because one of the goals of faith is to eliminate the distractions that keep us from following God’s will. Furthermore, the people are asking for a sign. Jesus, in His answer to them, chastises them for this as they already have a sign before them that even the Gentiles or pagans are able to recognize. He almost seems to be saying to them, “Why are you so ungrateful that you reject the signs you are given and seek, perhaps, bigger or more spectacular ones?”Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL Reflection Question: What is my take on this story? Do I keep asking God for signs or am I satisfied with finding Him in the ones that are already there in my life? Father in heaven, You sent Jesus to us as our Redeemer, the greatest sign of Your love. May this be enough for me to make the decision to be Your disciple. St. Patrick, pray for us. | |
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